Become A Successful Chinese Bureaucrat, In 5 Easy Steps
Forget Fifty Shades of Grey. In China, "bureaucracy lit" is flying off bookstore shelves. With the books' stories of Machiavellian office politics, they're read avidly, both as entertainment and as...
View ArticleBeijing's Air Quality Reaches Hazardous Levels
In China's capital, they're calling it the "airpocalypse," with air pollution that's literally off the charts. The air has been classified as hazardous to human health for a fifth consecutive day, at...
View Article'Friends' Will Be There For You At Beijing's Central Perk
Almost a decade since the end of the hit American TV series Friends, the show — and, in particular, the fictitious Central Perk cafe, where much of the action took place — is enjoying an afterlife in...
View ArticleAmerican Woman Gives Domestic Abuse A Face, And Voice, In China
The faces of American Kim Lee and her Chinese husband, Li Yang, both in their 40s, once graced the covers of books that sold in the millions.
View Article'China's Leonard Cohen' Calls Out Political Corruption
Zuoxiao Zuzhou is a Chinese singer whose accented, croaky voice is hardly ever in tune. But for his fans he's the voice of a generation — one of the very few voices who dare to speak out.
View ArticleIn China, Baby's Brutal Death Raises Questions For Many About Nation's Values
A tale of two car thefts has transfixed China, sparking a new bout of soul-searching. It's generated far more attention online than the ongoing legislative session in Beijing, despite leaked orders...
View ArticleWhile U.S And South Korea Militaries Drill, 'Bombast Continues' From The North
As NPR's Louisa Lim reported Monday on Morning Edition, a week of inflamed rhetoric from North Korea — including talk of a preemptive nuclear strike on the U.S. — is being followed by word that the...
View ArticleTibetan Customs Include Horse Races ... And Paramilitary Police?
In the exiled Tibetan calendar, March 10 is an emotive day, the anniversary of a failed uprising in 1959.
View ArticleFrom Police Chief To Political Office, Jobs Are For Sale In China
China's new president, Xi Jinping, who was formally elected Thursday, is already engaged in his own anti-corruption campaign, threatening to go after the key players — the tigers as well as the...
View ArticleNorth Korea's Stepped-Up Rhetoric: Is It More Than Talk?
North Korea has cut its last military hotlines with South Korea and yet again stepped up its rhetoric, rattling nerves in the region.Thousands of North Koreans rallied in central Pyongyang, chanting...
View ArticleFor Chinese Women, Marriage Depends On Right 'Bride Price'
Women hold up half the sky, China's Chairman Mao famously said. But in China, the one-child policy and the traditional preference for boys mean that 117 boys are born for every 100 baby girls. By one...
View ArticleChinese Dreams: Freedom, Democracy And Clean Air
"What is your Chinese dream?"With Chinese leaders and the state-run media now talking about the notion of the Chinese dream, we posed this question on our NPR Weibo account. In China, Weibo is the...
View ArticleChasing The Chinese Dream — If You Can Define It
Forget about the American dream. Nowadays, the next big thing is the Chinese dream.
View ArticleTo Silence Discontent, Chinese Officials Alter Calendar
How do you prevent protests in China? Move the weekend.That's the Orwellian step taken by local authorities in the southwestern city of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. May 4 is a sensitive...
View ArticleFive Years After A Quake, Chinese Cite Shoddy Reconstruction
Five years after the massive Wenchuan quake in China's Sichuan province left about 90,000 dead and missing, allegations are surfacing that corruption and official wrongdoing have plagued the...
View ArticleChildren Of China's Wealthy Learn Expensive Lessons
In China, having too much money is a relatively new problem. But the rapidly growing country is second only to the U.S. in its number of billionaires, according to Forbes magazine. And now an...
View ArticleChina's Artist Provocateur Explores New Medium: Heavy Metal
The man ArtReview magazine named the most powerful artist in the world is trying his hand at rock stardom. In 2011, the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei spent 81 days in detention. He was later let go and...
View ArticleTargets Of Disgraced Bo Xilai Still Languish In Jail
It was 5 p.m. on an ordinary Tuesday, and Li Ping was finishing up the company accounts before going to have a facial. She was working for her brother, Li Qiang, who owned one of the biggest private...
View ArticleFor China's Youth, A Life Of 'Darkness Outside The Night'
Xie Peng, a 36-year-old Chinese graphic novelist, spent six years working on his first book, Darkness Outside the Night. It's been praised by China's first Nobel laureate for literature, Mo Yan, as...
View ArticleMothers Of Tiananmen Call For Justice, Get Silence In Return
Ding Zilin has spent the past 24 years on one mission: seeking justice for the death of her son, 17-year-old Jiang Jielian, who was shot in the back by Chinese soldiers on the night of June 3,...
View Article
